New Zealand imposed a ban on assault weapons Thursday, moving swiftly following the Christchurch massacre and triggering renewed calls from leading American politicians for gun controls in the United States. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said assault rifles and semi-automatic weapons were now banned with immediate effect, making good on a pledge to the country of […]

New Zealand imposed a ban on assault weapons Thursday, moving swiftly following the Christchurch massacre and triggering renewed calls from leading American politicians for gun controls in the United States.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said assault rifles and semi-automatic weapons were now banned with immediate effect, making good on a pledge to the country of the military-style weapons used in last week’s slaughter of 50 people.

The killings at two Christchurch mosques by an Australian white supremacist have caused national soul-searching over New Zealand’s lax gun laws.

But the crackdown promises to have political repercussions beyond the country’s shores, including in the United States where gun control is one of the most divisive national political issues.

“In short, every semi-automatic weapon used in the terrorist attack on Friday will be banned in this country,” Ardern said.

She added that high-capacity magazines and devices similar to bump stocks – which allow users to fire weapons faster – will also be banned.

Proponents of gun control in the United States and around the world praised the move and denounced the powerful US pro-gun lobby on social media, while American gun supporters defended their constitutional right to bear arms.

“We must follow New Zealand’s lead, take on the NRA (National Rifle Association) and ban the sale and distribution of assault weapons in the United States.”

High-profile Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez contrasted Ardern’s swift action with US failure to enact even modest controls following recurring horrific shootings such as at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut in 2012, in which 20 children and six school staff died.

“Sandy Hook happened 6 years ago and we can’t even get the Senate to hold a vote on universal background checks,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted.

“Christchurch happened, and within days New Zealand acted to get weapons of war out of the consumer market. This is what leadership looks like.”

US President Donald Trump did not immediately react on his Twitter feed, but NRA spokeswoman Dana Loesch responded to Sanders by tweeting that “the US isn’t NZ.”

“While they do not have an inalienable right to bear arms and to self defense, we do,” she said.

Accused shooter Brenton Tarrant livestreamed the carnage in real-time, sparking worldwide revulsion and concern over access to guns and the use of social media by extremists.

Tarrant had written that he planned to use firearms for his attacks to encourage US gun control advocates to push for curbs, thus tearing open the bitter political debate.

“This attempted abolishment of rights by the left will result in a dramatic polarization of the people in the United States and eventually a fracturing of the US along cultural and racial lines,” he wrote.

New Zealand’s ban includes interim measures to prevent a run on such guns before legislation is enacted, and outlawing weapons already in private possession.

Guns are to be handed in and destroyed via a buyback scheme that will cost between Nz$100 million and $200 million (between US$69 million and $139 million), depending on how many are received and their valuations.

NZ Police Commissioner Michael Bush said there were around a quarter of a million firearms users in New Zealand, but he did not give a breakdown on how many possess semi-automatics.

Conservative estimates indicate some 1.5 million weapons are in circulation in New Zealand, equating to three guns for every 10 people, well below the US ratio of more than one weapon per person.

“The vast majority of New Zealanders will support this change. I feel incredibly confident of that,” Ardern said.

Simon Bridges, leader of the opposition National Party, embraced the ban and pledged to work with the government on it.

“The terrorist attack in Christchurch last week has changed us as a nation,” Bridges said.

“We agree that the public doesn’t need access to military-style semi-automatic weapons.”

Initial public reaction was positive in the still-shocked country, where hundreds of people turned out for a second day for sombre funerals in Christchurch.

“It’s a good thing. Why would we need to have guns like this in our houses?” Kawthar Abulaban, 54, who survived the shootings, told.

Dutch anti-immigration populists stunned Prime Minister Mark Rutte to become the joint biggest party in the senate Thursday following elections that took place just days after a suspected terror attack. Thierry Baudet’s Forum for Democracy party, which also backs a “Nexit” from the European Union, came from nowhere to win most votes in the provincial […]

Dutch anti-immigration populists stunned Prime Minister Mark Rutte to become the joint biggest party in the senate Thursday following elections that took place just days after a suspected terror attack.

Thierry Baudet’s Forum for Democracy party, which also backs a “Nexit” from the European Union, came from nowhere to win most votes in the provincial elections, with 93 percent of ballots counted, the NOS broadcaster said.

The result will ring alarm bells across Europe where populists are expected to make big gains in European Parliament elections in May.

Self-proclaimed intellectual Baudet, 36, who has a history of controversial comments about women and immigration and backs closer relations with Russia, accused Rutte of “arrogance and stupidity” and of ignoring voters.

“We stand here in the rubble of what was once the most beautiful civilisation,” he told a cheering crowd at a victory celebration late Wednesday in a speech laced with classical references.

The party, which only launched two years ago, will now be the largest in the upper house of parliament along with Rutte’s with 12 seats each, the Dutch news agency ANP said.

Dutch newspapers reacted with astonishment to the results. Algemeen Dagblad said “Baudet grabs mega-win” while De Telegraaf said simply: “Landslide”.

Rutte, an influential figure in Europe’s negotiations with Britain over its own departure from the EU, will now have to rely on other parties to get laws through the senate after his ruling coalition took a battering.

Baudet also made references to the shooting on a tram in the city of Utrecht on Monday in which three people died. A Turkish-born man has been arrested over the attack.

The populist faced criticism after failing to stop campaigning following the shooting.

“We are being destroyed by the people who are supposed to be protecting us,” the telegenic 36-year-old told a crowd that chanted his name on Wednesday night.

“Successive Rutte governments have left our borders wide open, letting in hundreds of thousands of people with cultures completely different to ours.”

Baudet has previously called for the Netherlands to immediately leave the EU but has recently softened his rhetoric as the chaos over Britain’s departure from the bloc escalates.

The former academic is known for controversial statements such as “women in general excel less in jobs and have less ambition”.

He has also called for the Netherlands — at odds with Moscow over the 2014 shooting down of a flight from Amsterdam over Kuala Lumpur and a Russian spy scandal at the world chemical weapons watchdog in The Hague — to repair ties with Vladimir Putin’s Russia.

The coalition led by Rutte’s centre-right VVD party — set up after a 2017 general election to keep far-right leader Geert Wilders out of power after he too won a surge in votes — is set to collapse from 38 to 31 seats in the 75-seat senate.

“We are going to have to get to work,” Rutte told supporters. “We have to talk with other parties so we can continue to lead this country well.”

Rutte will now be left to rely on opposition parties to pass legislation, including the leftist ecological party GroenLinks (Green Left) party led by Jesse Klaver, which had a good night and is set to double its seats from four to eight.

The final shape of the senate will be determined in May by the 570 representatives elected to the country’s 12 provinces in Wednesday’s election.

Baudet meanwhile seemed to have taken votes from Wilders, whose anti-Islam Freedom Party is set to win five seats, down from nine, amid signs that his fierce rhetoric is alienating voters.

The Netherlands has had a long line of flamboyant populist leaders dating back to Pim Fortuyn, the gay anti-immigration politician who was assassinated in 2002 by an animal activist.

A Dutch populist party will be the joint biggest in the senate and strip Prime Minister Mark Rutte of his majority following elections that came just days after a suspected terror attack, local media said Thursday. Controversial eurosceptic Thierry Baudet’s Forum for Democracy party came from nowhere to win most votes in the provincial elections, […]

A Dutch populist party will be the joint biggest in the senate and strip Prime Minister Mark Rutte of his majority following elections that came just days after a suspected terror attack, local media said Thursday.

Controversial eurosceptic Thierry Baudet’s Forum for Democracy party came from nowhere to win most votes in the provincial elections, with 93 percent of ballots counted, the NOS broadcaster said.

The party, which only launched two years ago, will now be the largest in the upper house of parliament along with Rutte’s with 12 seats each, the Dutch news agency ANP said.

The election came just two days after a Turkish-born man was arrested for the tram attack in Utrecht in which three people died.

Baudet — who faced criticism after failing to stop campaigning following the shooting — slammed Rutte’s record on immigration.

“We are being destroyed by the people who are supposed to be protecting us,” the telegenic 36-year-old told a crowd that chanted his name on Wednesday night.

“Successive Rutte governments have left our borders wide open, letting in hundreds of thousands of people with cultures completely different to ours.”

Baudet has previously called for a “Nexit”, or exit from the EU by the Netherlands, but has recently backtracked as the chaos over Britain’s departure from the bloc escalates.

The coalition led by Rutte’s centre-right VVD party is set to collapse from 38 to 31 seats in the 75-seat senate, and will now need support from other parties to pass legislation approved by the lower house.

“We are going to have to get to work,” Rutte told supporters. “We have to talk with other parties so we can continue to lead this country well.”

Figure skating’s ruling body is set to investigate claims America’s Mariah Bell deliberately injured South Korean rival Lim Eun-soo during a warm-up at the world championships in Japan. Korean officials told on Thursday that they had lodged a formal complaint following the incident, in which Lim’s management agency alleged Bell kicked their skater, causing a […]

Figure skating’s ruling body is set to investigate claims America’s Mariah Bell deliberately injured South Korean rival Lim Eun-soo during a warm-up at the world championships in Japan.

Korean officials told on Thursday that they had lodged a formal complaint following the incident, in which Lim’s management agency alleged Bell kicked their skater, causing a cut to her leg, while limbering up for the women’s short programme on Wednesday night.

The officials refused to speculate what action, if any, the International Skating Union (ISU) might take, admitting it was “difficult to prove” intent on Bell’s part.

“At this stage we can’t conclude Bell caused the injury on purpose,” a Korea Skating Union official said, adding that Lim’s parents also brought the clash to the body’s attention.

“It is hard to tell just by watching the video footage of the incident.”

The 16-year-old Lim, skating in her first senior world championships, was patched up before scoring a personal-best 72.91 points to place fifth in the short skate at Saitama, just ahead of Bell.

As social media lit up in South Korea in condemnation of Bell, 22, the ISU was set to meet later Thursday to discuss the claims, said media and communications manager Selina Vanier.

American skate officials were not immediately available for comment.

Lim’s All That Sports agency said there was reason to believe Bell’s act was deliberate, claiming Lim was skating close to the rink wall away from her rivals and the American collided with her from behind.

Lim and Bell both train under coach Rafael Arutyunyan and the Korean skater’s management also alleged Bell had been “bullying Lim for months” leading up to the world championships, according to local media.

The management company also claimed Bell failed to apologise after the incident, a point many on social media jumped on.

“The problem with Mariah Bell was that she was skating too close to the edge and her blade stabbed into Eunsoo’s leg,” tweeted one fan.

“Putting all bullying rumors aside, shouldn’t she have apologized?”

The glitzy world of figure skating is more commonly associated with frilly skirts and hairspray but is no stranger to controversy, most notably when American Tonya Harding’s ex-husband and bodyguard arranged an attack on her rival Nancy Kerrigan in the run-up to the 1994 Lillehammer Olympics.

Plenty of skating fans came out in support of Bell, while others called for calm.

“First of all people need to CALM DOWN and analyze,” suggested one Twitter user.

“Why would a veteran skater like Bell injure someone during a PUBLIC PRACTICE in front of hundreds of fans? None of the fans, who were taking notes, said ANYTHING about a collision.”

Olympic champion Alina Zagitova leads the standings heading into Friday’s free skate at the world championships in Saitama.

Euro 2016 winner Renato Sanches says he is considering leaving Bundesliga champions Bayern Munich at the end of the season because of a lack of playing time. The Portuguese midfielder joined the club as an 18-year-old in 2016 for 35 million euros ($39.9m) – a Bundesliga record for a teenager. “I’m not happy here,” he […]

A dogged but isolated Prime Minister Theresa May was headed back to Brussels on Thursday to beg for more time to deliver her Brexit plan, in defiance of the MPs who twice rejected the withdrawal deal. May’s fellow European Union leaders, meeting for their spring summit, say they will tell her that Britain can postpone […]

A dogged but isolated Prime Minister Theresa May was headed back to Brussels on Thursday to beg for more time to deliver her Brexit plan, in defiance of the MPs who twice rejected the withdrawal deal.

May’s fellow European Union leaders, meeting for their spring summit, say they will tell her that Britain can postpone Brexit until May 22, but only if she can win over British lawmakers next week.

If the withdrawal agreement is rejected again, an emergency summit could be called next week to agree a longer extension until at least the end of the year – otherwise Britain’s four-decade-year-old European adventure comes to an abrupt end on March 29.

Time is tight, but there will be no decision on an extension in Brussels on Thursday, and May seemed to have done no favours to her efforts to persuade more MPs to back the withdrawal agreement on the eve of the summit, when she blamed them for the impasse.

“All MPs have been willing to say is what they do not want,” she said, in a televised address that sought to reach over the heads of parliament to the British people and infuriated lawmakers on both sides of the House of Commons.

“I passionately hope MPs will find a way to back the deal I’ve negotiated with the EU, a deal that delivers on the result of the referendum and is the very best deal negotiable,” she said.

The deal could be brought back to parliament as early as Tuesday.

May wrote to EU Council president and summit host Donald Tusk on Wednesday to ask for a three-month delay of Brexit until June 30, but EU diplomats insisted that Britain would either have to leave before the May 23 European election or take part in the vote and stay in the bloc until at least the end of the year.

May, however, has insisted that she will not oversee a long delay, which would increase pressure at home for a general election or for a second Brexit referendum that might reverse the decision to leave.

“You want this stage of the Brexit process to be over and done with this. I agree. I am on your side,” May told voters, blaming the MPs opposed to her Brexit plan and insisting she was requesting a delay until June 30 with “great personal regret”.

Tusk, meanwhile, admitted that European leaders are suffering “Brexit fatigue”. He said he feared his hopes for an orderly Brexit agreement with a plan in place to prevent economic and political chaos may prove “frail, even illusory.”

Lawmakers have twice resoundingly rejected May’s agreement, and a third vote the premier hoped to hold this week was cancelled by the House of Commons speaker on procedural grounds.

Nevertheless, Tusk was clear that Europe wants May to try again.

“In the light of the consultations I have conducted over the past days, I believe a short extension will be possible but it will be conditional on a positive vote on the withdrawal agreement in the House of Commons,” Tusk told reporters.

May is hoping a third vote could be admitted despite the speaker’s decision, if she can formalise changes made to the agreement with EU leaders last week.

In Berlin, Chancellor Angela Merkel agreed, telling lawmakers that EU leaders would approve some Brexit guarantees offered to May in Strasbourg last week to help reassure British lawmakers and that if the deal passes “we could positively talk about a short delay.”

Diplomats from other EU countries made similar noises, although France struck a tougher note, stressing more clearly that no postponement would be given unless May comes up with a credible strategy to get the withdrawal agreement ratified.

The British parliament has been deadlocked for months over Brexit, with MPs unable to decide how to implement the referendum result, and voters themselves are also sharply divided.

But Britain is now in crisis, facing the potentially catastrophic prospect of leaving its biggest trading partner with no arrangements in place.

May’s team tried to engage senior members of the opposition, hoping to bring enough members on side to pull her deal through. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn will also be in Brussels on Thursday for talks with EU negotiator Michel Barnier.

Former Lieutenant Commander, Chandana Prasad Hettiarachchi, alias as ‘Navy Sampath’, who was arrested over the abduction and disappearance of 11 youths from Colombo, has been further remanded by the Colombo Fort Magistrate. Considering the submissions presented during today’s hearing, the Colombo Additional Magistrate Shalani Perara today (21) ordered to remand the suspect until April 04. […]

Former Lieutenant Commander, Chandana Prasad Hettiarachchi, alias as ‘Navy Sampath’, who was arrested over the abduction and disappearance of 11 youths from Colombo, has been further remanded by the Colombo Fort Magistrate.

Considering the submissions presented during today’s hearing, the Colombo Additional Magistrate Shalani Perara today (21) ordered to remand the suspect until April 04.

Hettiarachchi Mudiyanselage Chandana Prasad Hettiarachchi aka ‘Navy Sampath’, a former Lieutenant Commander of the Sri Lanka Navy (SLN), had been wanted by the police in connection with the kidnapping for ransom, illegal detention, and murder of 11 youths in 2008 and 2009.

Previously, an open warrant had been issued for his arrest by the Fort Magistrate’s Court.

Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) has caused the severest damage to Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), says SLFP General Secretary MP Dayasiri Jayasekara. He stated this addressing a public meeting held in Kegalle. The SLPP has destroyed the SLFP while it has also helped the victory and the revival of the party, the parliamentarian stated. […]

Ward Place in Colombo has been temporarily closed near the University Grants Commission (UGC) due to a protest by university students. that a group of students from the University of Ruhuna are currently staging a protest in front of the UGC. Severe traffic congestion has been reported in the area due to the protest.